Electronic devices, such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDA's), often contain firmware and application software that are either provided by the manufacturers of the electronic devices, by telecommunication carriers, or by third parties. The management of managed objects in mobile handsets is neither supported by APIs nor properly supported by management clients. For example, a Java management client may create a management tree in a Java virtual machine (JVM) environment that is neither accessible from a C program in a non-JVM environment nor visible. Similarly, a management tree maintained in a non-JVM environment is not accessible from a mobile information device profile (MIDP) JVM. In addition, a management tree saved in a JVM record store is not accessible to a C program executing in an environment that is external to the JVM.
Creating managed objects is important for device management. Inserting managed objects into a management tree from several different environments and sharing the management tree across all these environments is, although essential, currently not supported in most mobile handsets due to various reasons. Access to the managed objects in the management tree is also very important but is not possible in most handsets.
Managed objects are sometimes used to represent software and hardware components in a mobile handset. Managed objects may be arranged in a tree type data structure. It is a problem when data stored in the nodes and leaves of such a tree are not accessible to applications or components due to various reasons. For example, if the software that manages the tree is not accessible to the consumers of the tree, it is a problem. If a standard application program interface (API) does not exist for the management of the management tree, it is a problem. If the various components of the management can only be read but not locally updated by components in the device, it is of limited use and a problem.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the. art through comparison of such systems with the present invention.